@LaFamiliaFilm tipped me to this truly inspirational documentary on the CinephileArchive blog. Where would be without Zoetrope?
Tag: indie film
Yesterday, we ran part one. All of this is courtesy of Andrew Einspruch and Screen Hub. And of course Screen Australia who brought me to Sydney for a two day lecture last month. Today: part two. (P.S. There are 98 more parts to this lecture but it requires a few more trips to Sydney before I can spit it out!)
by Andrew Einspruch
“For Hope, who is a producer is pretty simple. It is the person there from the beginning of the project to its end.” Daunting but true, and Andrew Einspruch tracked his definition for being there down to his feeling for percentages.
As Ted Hope made abundantly clear on the second day of Hope for Film, effective feature film producers have to know a lot of stuff, and have to keep at it to learn more. Here’s a brief list of things he rattled off:
– Dramaturgy and script development
– Breadth of available actors and crew
– How to maintain the line during production
– How to elevate a project during its creation
– A solid business and financial background in the media space so you can determine the value of what you are creating, and then do that evaluation.
– Who the foreign sales companies are and their reputations (Hope’s own list has 72 on it).
– The meanings of the various film festivals, and what it means to launch at one vs. another.
– How to manage the 90+ territories that are out there (generally sold as about 60).
– The different digital platforms that are out there, and how they can help you sell your film.
– Having big opinions on marketing and distribution, and the wisdom to know you are not always right.
– What brings people together to create an audience.
It is an overwhelming list of knowledge and understanding. “The nice thing is that there is probably no one out there that can answer all those questions,” said Hope. “But it doesn’t stop you from striving to hit it and to try to have the best practices available to you.”
As you might know, I was in Sydney,Australia courtesy of Screen Australia to do a Two Day Workshop on Producing, entitled HopeForFilm. Screen Hub journalist Andrew Einspruch took careful notes — and he and Screen Hub kindly agreed to share it with you. Thanks. Here’s Day One:
by Andrew Einspruch
Let’s start with how the movie world has changed. As Ted Hope phrased it, the first hundred-plus years in the film world were marked by three characteristics that no longer apply. “The business was built around a belief in the scarcity of product, that we have to control where people see and engage with that content, and that the only way they will do is impulsively, without education or knowledge beforehand.”
This antiquated model has fallen over.
To effectively serve, preserve, embrace and enhance film and film culture, we must examine, participate, and evolve the broadest definition thereof. Film, as an art, culture, community, business, and science is consistently evolving – it may be a cliché, but it’s a fact that film culture’s only constant is change. Film’s evolution needs to be embraced and experimented with –not feared.
Large well-financed interests are heavily committed to maintaining the status quo and as much as those corporate and business entities are the filmmakers’ & film cultures’ allies, those who love film first for the art and culture must act for the artists’ interests over those of pure profit.
Now in it’s 28th year, the Film Independent Spirit Awards recognize the achievements of American independent filmmakers and promotes the finest independent films of the year to a wider audience.
Regular deadline is tomorrow: September 18
SUBMIT TODAY
Final Deadline: October 16
For entry forms, rules and regulations, frequenty asked questions and to submit a film, visit SpiritAwards.com
I was on the radio in New Zealand in support of Big Screen Symposium a couple of weeks back. It was a very good interview, if I do say so myself. The interviewer knew his stuff and I had enough coffee to be pretty sharp.
Categories
Traditional Indies Vs Truly Free
When I was in Australia & New Zealand recently, I was asked by Screen Hub journalist Andrew Einspruch to explain what I meant as the difference between Traditional Indie Film and my favorite phrase “Truly Free Film”:
I think it is one of consistent evolution and transformation to some degree. I come from America, and that’s my perspective. In America, the process of indie film creation has always been, essentially, to write for the market, whether people really think it through or not. I think it interferes, or at least enters and influences, their work process.
We don’t have any state funding in America for cinema; there’s no subsidised system. So when a film is produced, it is often made with the intent that it will be sold to a buyer/distributor, and ideally one of the studio-controlled specialised division.
Even in a film that is 100% private equity financed, those that create it tend to self-censor to some degree in an effort to make sure the film can sell to one of these well-capitalised entities.
